Violet hustled around, trying to make conversation while keeping the party flowing. Levi started to scream in his seat, while Wendi did the same thing in her grandmother’s arms.
Brando suggested that I help.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Violet has plenty of help.”
He leaned in and gave me a chaste kiss. He not only smelled of grape, he tasted of it, too. In a move made unconsciously, I licked my lips.
“Her mom is having a hard time with two.”
Two arms, two babies, I wanted to reply. Instead, I left him with a cold stare that I hoped sent the warning loud and clear. My honor—or his—was never infringed upon, and I would never do anything as stupid as risk what I had with him.
Truth be told, Brando consumed me, and he was the only man I ever thought about, even when reading romance novels. It was his face that I saw in all those pages. Was I pathetic? Perhaps. But I’d take pathetic if it came with a love like ours.
I viewed marriage as something sacred, and admiring other men was an insult to the institution of it. And even if I didn’t hold those particular morals,myman made other women yearn. He was mine, and he lived up to the fantasies and went beyond what the mind could dream up.
Flesh, blood, and bone, he was real.
So there was no reason for this silent battle of wills—or whatever this was turning out to be. Santiago couldn’t win regardless. There was nothing up for the prize.
“Try telling that to a headstrong man, though,” I whispered to myself. I smiled at Violet’s mother as I leaned down and picked Levi up. She sighed and made a comment about two being double the blessing and double the trouble.
Though I paid close attention to Levi, I also paid close attention to Brando and Santiago. It seemed so sanguine on the outside, but being somehow tangled in the mess, I felt the opposite from the inside.
This suspicion was confirmed when a cluster of men surrounded Brando and Santiago and the air seemed to be charged with an oncoming battle.
“Mr. Rodrigo is going to crush him!”
“Not likely. You haven’t seen BRANDPOW in action. There’s a reason we addPowto his name,” Paul added logically.
A bunch of these statements started to fly from one mouth to another. I refused to step foot in the crowd around the two, afraid of what I might find. I kissed Levi, stroking his blonde fringe of hair. He was even curious, old enough to keep his head up, wide eyes fixed on the coming melee. I think it was more of the energy coming from the men that attracted his attention.
Were they going to effing arm wrestle?
“A soccer match,” Violet said, suddenly appearing beside me. “Rocco is Brando’s goalie. Mick agreed to be Santiago’s. Do you think Brando can take him?”
“Definetake him.” I glanced at Violet and she grinned. “It isn’t funny!”
She blew air against Levi’s stomach and he giggled. “No, maybe not, but a bit romantic?”
“Romantic?” My mouth fell open. Levi stuck his finger in, then continued to giggle when I pretended to eat it.
“All of the ladies think so.” She nodded toward the window, where women had started to unfold lawn chairs, ready to brazen out the winter air for the hot match. “Not that they realize it’s over you, just that two gorgeous men are about to battle it out on the field. But if Brando wins, I’m not sure what he’s won. You have no interest in Santiago. Anyone with eyes can see that.”
I said nothing, but I knew it was more than me. He’d win this imaginary fight against the future. The roses, too, were another issue, though no proof had been found that Santiago had even sent them.
Jealousy was not an emotion known to make a person sane, or even logical.
In a rush, it seemed the house cleared out, and it was suddenly silent, almost eerily so. So consumed by my own issues, I was shocked by what I saw on Violet’s face when I caught her looking around the emptied house. The quiet seemed to haunt her.
“What is it?” I put my hand on her arm, and she covered it with her own.
“Nothing.” She waved her other hand. “The quiet bothers me now, that’s all.”
“Bothers you?” I shifted Levi to the other hip. “What does that mean?”
She was surrounded by noise, almost nonstop. Two older boys whose friends were in and out of her doors, one tiny girl who rarely stopped growling long enough to speak, and two infant twins who required care around the clock. Mick was gone every two weeks, but when he was around, she had his company. Not to mention all of us—extended family included.
“Silence, Scarlett. It makes me think of the day my children will be gone. It will sound like this. Just outside noise coming in. As insane as this sounds, the noise, it…comforts me. Reminds me that my kids are still around to make it.”
